IS Milan Digital Brochure 22-23

IS Milan An introduction

The value of being part of the International Schools Group

The International Schools Group is the largest provider of quality international education in Italy, characterised above all by the extent to which its philosophy and approach is perfectly aligned with that of the International Baccalaureate® (IB).

Alongside the use of English as the language of tuition for students from 2-3 to 18 years of age, all of our schools have an excellent track record in using group dynamics, innovative teaching techniques and tools that are updated continuously in a unique and stimulating educational context.

From Early Years through to High School, all these International Schools offer IB programmes adopted by over 5,000 schools in 150 countries (www.ibo.org). We are proud to be able to call ourselves IB continuum schools as every one of our schools is

officially authorised by the IB (or is in the final candidate phase preceding authorisation) to exclusively offer its programmes at every level:

• Primary Years Programme (PYP)

• Middle Years Programme (MYP)

• IB Diploma Programme (DP)

In this way, all our schools offer what is a truly international curriculum, widely considered to be the most forward-thinking and avantgarde educational model in the world, aimed at stimulating inquiry, critical thinking and international-mindedness.

A definitive statement of excellence in private education, Inspired, founded by Nadim M. Nsouli, is a leading international group of over 80 premium schools, educating more than 65,000 students on 5 continents, designed to inspire students to achieve their maximum potential in a nurturing, progressive academic environment.

Inspired offers a fresh contemporary approach to education by re-evaluating traditional

teaching methods and curricula and creating a more dynamic, relevant and powerful model reflecting current attitudes.

Inspired schools nurture the unique individuality, talent and self assurance of each student, equipping them to take on the world with the skills and confidence to ensure success.

www.inspirededu.com

Since September 2016, the group has been a member of Inspired

Why choose an International school?

High Standards, International Values and Active Citizenship

These core values are embedded in our mission statement and experienced every day by students of all ages – coordinated by an outstanding team of educational leaders and implemented by our highly-skilled and dedicated professional staff. Learning at our International School is exciting and engaging, as students strive for excellence in a climate that is caring and responsive to their personal needs and goals.

International perspectives and values

Learning at an International School is naturally an international experience. This leads to a perception of the world that merges understanding of our global context with the development of skills and attitudes that young people require to participate fully in the world of tomorrow; both as national and global citizens.

The school community extends to parents and staff and to our network of partners across Italy and throughout the world. We encourage our students to feel part of a dynamic enterprise, committed to development and cultural interaction.

Five key reasons to set your child on the right course for the future

Top class facilities for successful schools in the heart of their community

Our international schools are uniquely designed and developed in response to their environment and location. Varying in size mainly between 130 and 1,200 students, our schools provide an excellent education in every case for both local and international students across both communities.

All campuses are extremely attractive, functional, designed around students’ needs and are equipped with:

• libraries

• professional science laboratories

• creative arts centres

• music studios

• a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports facilities

We are committed to incorporating technology to support our educational vision and enable students to integrate the use of personal mobile devices to assist learning. At every stage of education we stress the importance of balance between traditional and contemporary skills to ensure that young learners are fully equipped to face future challenges.

The IB Curriculum Framework

The International Schools Group was the first group in Italy to be authorised by the International Baccalaureate to offer all three of its curriculum programmes:

• Primary Years Programme (PYP)

• Middle Years Programme (MYP)

• Diploma Programme (DP)

Its programmes are internationally recognised for their quality and innovative approaches. There is a high value placed on learning through inquiry, which engages students to participate actively in the learning process and provides students with the most challenging and rewarding experiences available in schools today.

4

Results that are consistently exceptional

In the 30 years since we introduced the International Baccalaureate as a Group, our results have been consistently outstanding. All graduates have an excellent record of academic success and go on to the world’s most renowned universities to study in a wide range of faculties and specialisations. The IB was created for internationally mobile citizens and is recognised worldwide, allowing students an enviable breadth

of choices for their future studies and ensuring global opportunities for their future professions. Alongside our international programme, students follow lessons in line with the Italian Bilingual expectations with lessons that are fully integrated into the IB curriculum.

5

Part of Inspired, a leading international group of over 80 schools

Inspired sets a new standard in premium private education with hand-picked teachers and a dedication to excellence that permeates every aspect of each school. Integrating innovative, challenging and enriching academic, performing arts and sports programmes, Inspired’s students leave with outstanding results, a love of learning, confidence and a firm value system that prepares them to embrace the challenges life throws at them in their future endeavours.

Outdoor playgrounds and sports facilities

Library and learning centre

Modern and spacious boarding facilities

School Structure

IB Programme

Sistema Milan

Scuola d’infanzia

Scuola Elementare

Scuola secondaria di 1° grado (Scuola Media)

Scuola secondaria di 2° grado (Liceo)

Diploma Programme Grade 12 Grade 13 16 years old 17 years old

Scuola secondaria di 2° grado (Liceo)

IS Milan IB Primary Years Programme (PYP)

Early Years

Curriculum

The early years are a very important stage for development, with experiences during these years laying the foundation for all future learning. Children are born with the ability to question, wonder and theorize about themselves, others and the world around them. At IS Milan we respond to children’s innate capabilities by creating a learning environment that values them for who they are today and who they will become tomorrow. Through play, early learners respond to new and unexpected challenges and opportunities, developing knowledge, conceptual understanding, skills and dispositions.

Learning and teaching in the early years supports students’ interests and pathways of development. Teachers support learning by:

• planning uninterrupted time for play

• building strong relationships with students and their families

• creating and maintaining responsive spaces for play

• offering many opportunities for symbolic exploration and expression

Our early learners develop approaches to learning, including;

• Receptive and cognitive abilities (for example, listening, remembering, thinking, analysing, generating theories, the control of attention and working memory)

• Representational abilities (for example, using symbolic systemssuch as oral and written language, drawing and mathematical symbolsto construct and represent meaning)

• Relational abilities (for example, the ability to play with peers, sharing and taking turns, and respecting others)

Primary School and the IB Primary Years Programme

At IS Milan we nurture a love of learning and equip our students with the skills needed to find out what they do not know or understand. Our students are active participants of their own learning – they take initiative, express their thoughts, make choices and are aware of their learning goals. Together with our families we build a community that nurtures agency, creativity and lifelong learning.

The Primary School follows the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP). The PYP is a programme of international education designed to encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate citizens who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. The PYP works to develop the whole child, aiming to build within each young learner a passion for learning that will last a lifetime. At the heart of the PYP is a powerful emphasis on inquiry-based learning.

The IB learner profile

Central to the PYP is the IB learner profile; ten attributes that are taught, developed, and encouraged within every activity that our students undertake:

• Inquirers

• Communicators

Elements of the PYP

• Knowledgeable

• Principled

• Risk-takers

Balanced

• Reflective

• Caring

• Thinkers

• Open-minded

•

The PYP curriculum framework

The PYP curriculum framework emphasizes the central principle of agency (voice, choice and ownership) that is threaded throughout the three pillars of the curriculum: the learner, learning and teaching and the learning community. Our students use their own initiative and will, and take responsibility for, and ownership of, their learning.

These PYP elements resonate throughout the programme: Knowledge - Significant, relevant content that we wish the students to explore and know about, taking into consideration their prior experiences and understanding.

Approaches to Learning – Approaches

to Learning (ATL) are grounded in the belief that learning how to learn is fundamental to a student’s education. Five categories of interrelated skills (social skills, communication skills, research skills, self-management skills and thinking skills) and associated subskills support students of all ages to become self-regulated learners.

Concepts - Powerful ideas that have relevance within the subject areas but also transcend them and that students must explore and re-explore in order to develop a coherent, in-depth understanding. There are seven PYP key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, responsibility and perspective), as well as subject-specific related concepts.

Action – Action is the core of student agency and is integral to the programme’s overarching outcome of international-mindedness. Initiated by students, PYP action is authentic, meaningful, mindful, responsible and responsive.

The PYP curriculum centres on transdisciplinary learning as the curriculum foundation so students can experience learning between, across and beyond traditional subject boundaries. Learning is structured around six transdisciplinary themes (who we are, where we are in place and time, how we express ourselves, how the world works, how we organise ourselves and sharing the planet). The transdisciplinary themes capture human commonalities that are significant and relevant regardless of where students are in the world and

to which ethnic or cultural groups they belong. The programme of inquiry ensures students gain a balance of subject-specific knowledge, conceptual understandings and skills, alongside opportunities to develop the attributes of the IB learner profile and to take action. In the Early Years the students undertake four units under four transdisciplinary themes. In Grades 2-6 all six themes are explored.

The five ‘Approaches to learning’ skill categories

1. Thinking skills - the acquisition of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, dialectical thought, and metacognition (thinking about thinking).

2. Research skills - formulating questions, observing, planning, collecting and recording data, organising and interpreting data, and presenting research findings.

3. Communication skills - listening, speaking, reading, writing, and nonverbal communication.

4. Self-management skills - gross and fine motor skills, spatial awareness, organisation, time management, safety, a healthy lifestyle, codes of behaviour and making informed choices.

5. Social skills - accepting responsibility, respecting others, cooperating, resolving conflict, group decision making, and adopting a variety of group roles.

The PYP Coordinator sends PYP Curriculum updates to parents and holds regular meetings and workshops to support parents in their understanding of the unique features of the PYP.

The average school day lasts around seven hours in most of our schools, from Monday to Friday. There is a full and varied after-school programme with activities including music, sport, drama, an extensive range of personal interest clubs and homework supervision for one hour after school on most days.

Middle School and the IB Middle Years Programme

IS Milan is an IB World School offering the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) which is the next step in the IB continuum of international education. The MYP builds on the foundations acquired in Elementary school, encouraging students to become independent, internationally minded, and lifelong learners.

All of our students receive a rich curriculum which is comprehensive and challenging, helping students build a strong foundation in the major subject areas as well as several foreign languages. Skills are developed alongside knowledge, and the students become thoughtful, creative and valuable members of the International and Italian communities. Our educators are caring and experienced and are aware that students in this age group need security, support and success.

Curriculum

Our aim is to deliver an International Education and at the same time, as with the primary school, we provide the important elements of the Italian State Curriculum. In these three years of middle school we take the Italian Scuola Media Programme and integrate it into the MYP so that Italian students are prepared for the end-of-year State Italian Exams which they invariably do superbly well in. Our international students in the main do not sit the Italian state examinations unless they wish to.

The MYP curriculum is organised around eight traditional subject areas:

• Arts: Art, Music and Drama

• Individuals & Societies: History and Geography

• Language & Literature: English and Italian (Mother Tongue Teachers)

• Language Acquisition: Spanish or Italian or other languages including French and Mandarin Chinese

• Mathematics

• Physical & Health Education: Physical Education

• Science: Integrated Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Physics

• Design: Product Design and/or Digital Design

There are 35 lessons of 45 minutes that add up to 26 hours and 15 minutes weekly, plus 100 minutes of tutoring, enrichment or personal, social and health lessons. Some subjects will have double lessons. There is a full and varied after-school programme with activities including Music, Sport, Drama, an extensive range of personal interest clubs and homework supervision.

IS Milan The Diploma programme

High School and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme

At IS Milan, our four-year High School is divided into two distinct phases, which each have a duration of two years.

During the first two years, students complete the final years of the IB’s Middle Years Programme (MYP), with the key difference being that subject specialisation takes place in some of the eight subject groups, allowing this period to be both the culmination of the MYP as well as preparation for the IB Diploma Programme.

In the second of the two year phase of High School, our schools offer the IB’s rigorous two-year Diploma Programme (IBDP) for 16-19 year olds, which is widely considered to be the world’s leading preuniversity qualification.

One in three IB Diploma students attain 38 points or more than the benchmark for admission to the top rung of the world’s leading universities.

These results are particularly impressive when one considers that IS Milan’s approach to admissions is not purely based on prior academic merit. As a premium schools group, we believe that as many young people as possible should have access to this wonderful programme of study and hence our policy is that, if we believe an applicant can have an enriching experience during their time with us and that they can leave with an IB Diploma in their hand to open doors with, then we will offer them a place.

Thanks to a team of highly qualified teachers, many of whom are IB examiners and trainers, we prepare students exceptionally well for academic success in each of their chosen subject disciplines. We also endeavour to ensure that the underlying philosophy of the IB is at the forefront of the student experience during their Diploma Programme studies. Students

are encouraged to be knowledgeable and inquiring, but also caring and compassionate; we put a strong emphasis on encouraging students to develop intercultural understanding, open-mindedness, and the attitudes necessary for them to respect and evaluate a range of points of view. To this end, IS Milan is often commended as such when the IB conducts its evaluations of us.

The IB Diploma Programme Model

Encouraging the concurrent study of a broad range of academic areas, our IB Programme is presented as six academic areas enclosing a central core. Students study:

• two modern languages

• a humanities or social science subject

• an experimental science

• mathematics

• one of the creative arts or an additional subject from one of the aforementioned groups.

It is this comprehensive range of subjects that makes the IB Diploma Programme a demanding course of study designed to prepare students effectively for university entrance and, above all, success in life beyond education. In each of the academic areas, students have flexibility in making their choices, which means they can choose subjects that particularly interest them and that they may wish to study further at university.

Three subjects (and not more than four) are taken at Higher Level (HL), and the others are taken at Standard Level (SL). Subjects at HL are studied in greater depth and breadth than at SL. At both levels, many skills are developed, especially those of critical thinking and analysis. At the end of the course, each student’s abilities are measured by means of external and internationally standardised assessment. All subjects contain some element of coursework assessed internally by teachers.

The core

All Diploma Programme students actively participate in the three components that make up the core of the “hexagon” of six subjects. Reflection on all these activities is a principle that lies at the heart of the thinking behind the Diploma Programme.

The Theory of Knowledge Course encourages students to think about the nature of knowledge, to reflect on the process of learning in all the subjects

they study as part of their Diploma Programme, and to make connections across the academic areas. As part of this course, students will complete an extended essay, a substantial piece of writing of 4,000 words, which enables them to investigate a topic of special interest that they have chosen themselves. It also encourages students to develop the skills of independent research that will be expected at university. Creativity, activity and service involves students in experiential learning through a range of artistic, sporting, physical and service activities.

Subjects offered

We offer a wide range of subjects to cater for all needs and whichever International School you visit, there will be a range of options to set your child up to fulfill their future tertiary education and career pathways.

Career and higher education counselling

We are fortunate to have a highly experienced and passionate team of university counsellors to draw on for a wealth of knowledge. Through their combined knowledge we can advise families regarding the most appropriate tertiary education pathways across the globe, with the majority of our graduates choosing to pursue studies in the UK, followed by The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, the US and elsewhere. In addition, we arrange for students to take part in work experience with both local and international organisations whilst in high school. Many students also participate in pre-university courses, internships and volunteer projects locally and abroad throughout the year, in order to prepare them for future career choices.

University destinations by country

UK Italy

Netherlands

Spain

US

Which universities do our ISE students go on to study at?

United Kingdom

University of Bath

University of Birmingham

University of Brighton

USA

University of Pennsylvania

University of Chicago

University of California Los Angeles

Switzerland

Elsewhere

> More than 50% of our students are going to the best universities in the UK.

University of Bristol

University of Cambridge

Cardiff University

Durham University

University of East Anglia

University of Edinburgh

University of Essex

University of Hull

Keele University

University of Kent

Kingston University London

University of Lancaster

University of Leicester

University of Liverpool

University of Manchester

Newcastle University

University of Nottingham

University of Oxford

University of Plymouth

University of Reading

University of Sheffield

University of Stirling

University of St. Andrews

University of Southampton

University of Strathclyde

University of Surrey

University of Sussex

University of Warwick

University of York

Goldsmiths, University of London

Imperial College London

Cornell University

Northwestern University

Johns Hopkins University

Emory College

University of Ohio

Tufts University

Brown University

Columbia University & Boston University

TVI Actors’ Studio (NY)

Italy

Università Bocconi di Milano

Università Statale di Milano

Politecnico di MIlano

Università Bicocca (Milano)

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milano)

Istituto Universitario di Lingue Moderne

Brera Art School

Politecnico del Design

Marangoni School of Fashion Design

School of Advertising and Communication

Università di Castellanza

Università di Padova

Università di Pavia

Università La Sapienza di Roma

LUISS Roma

Università di Torino

The European Business School Milan

Milan Conservatorio and Venice (Cà Foscari)

Rest of the World

Journalism

Languages & Literature

Film

Fashion & Design Visual Arts

King’s College London

London School of Economics

Queen Mary & Westfield College

Royal Holloway College

School of Oriental and African Studies

University College London

Royal Veterinary College

Central St. Martin’s Art College

The London Institute

The European Business School London

London University of the Arts

Spain

Esade

IE

Brazil (Sao Paolo)

Argentina

Canada

Chile

Czech Republic

Ireland (Trinity College)

Israel

Japan

Mexico

Monaco

Portugal

Serbia

Sweden

Switzerland (including Lausanne

School for Hospitality and Hotel Management)

The Netherlands

Amsterdam Delf University

Rotterdam Erasmus University

International School of Milan Welcome Guide

Co-Curricular Programme

At IS Milan we pride ourselves on being a learning community for all ages and learning styles. To this end, we value co-curricular learning which allows the students to pursue talents and skills outside the main educational activities and reach their full potential.

We offer a range of after-school activities in a variety of areas such as:

• Drama

• Sport (Football, Rugby, Swimming, Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Badminton and Multi Sports)

• Coding

• Photography

• Story and Writing Club

• Languages Clubs

• Dance and Musical Instrument tuition

In addition, there are also activities close to our core purpose, which is developing internationally-minded and active global citizens, such as Model United Nations and Global Issue Network. All activities are run by qualified experts and take place throughout the week.

Creative and performing arts

Whilst creative and performing arts are embedded into our PYP and MYP curricula via Visual Arts, Drama and Music, we also offer students many opportunities to engage actively in these areas beyond the classroom, primarily through our co-curricular programme, visits and workshops. Naturally, all of these subjects are taught by fully qualified and experienced personnel in specially designed and resourced studios.

Whilst these are all exciting subjects in their own right, which many of our students opt to pursue in further studies for their DP and beyond, we also believe that the skills developed in these areas are extremely useful for developing creative thought - an essential life skill for the modern workplace, no matter what their chosen path.

Sport

We participate in a wide variety of sports programmes both in the normal school curriculum and in the co-curricular programme. In the lessons, students have an opportunity to participate in a wide variety of sports and do have the opportunity to choose their pathways. Being active is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but teamwork, resilience and cooperation are also important skills that our sports programme helps to develop.

As well as outstanding curricula we also offer the opportunity for students to gain coaching qualifications and participate in competitive events against other schools both locally, nationally and internationally through our sports network.

We believe in the importance of giving our students opportunities to be actively involved in the community. We hold regular sports events, exhibitions and performances so that everyone has the opportunity to participate or appreciate our students’ skills and talents.

A virtual tour of IS Milan